The Marriage Cases - Reversing the Burden of Inertia in a Pluralist Constitutional Democracy

P.2d 17 (Cal.1948).2. In re Marriage Cases, 183 P.3d 384 (Cal.2008). 3.Massachusetts was the first.See Goodridge v. Dep't Pub.Health, 798 N.E.2d 941 (Mass.Supreme Court was the first state supreme court to unequivocally declare sexual orientation a suspect classification.After the Marriage Cases, state courts all over the country will probably take these arguments more seriously.7 Third, as an alternative basis for strict scrutiny, the court ruled that the fundamental right to marry applies to lesbian and gay couples.8 Although this holding seems the most logically apparent, it is also the most pioneering: no appellate court in America had ever accepted the notion that the right to marry has any application to lesbian and gay couples.In the wake of California's actions, three state legislatures extended fundamental marriage rights to lesbian and gay couples by legislation.9 legislation passed subsequent to the Goodridge decision).Shortly after the Marriage Cases, the Connecticut Supreme Court struck down that state's exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage.Kerrigan v. Connecticut Dep't Pub.Health, 957 A.2d 407 (Conn.2008).Both Goodridge and Kerrigan were decided by 4-3 court majorities.In a unanimous opinion joined by all seven justices, the Iowa Supreme Court recently struck down its same-sex marriage ban.Varnum v. Brien, 763 N.W.2d 862 (Iowa 2009).4.